Just a question, and I'm not trying to stir up a hornet's nest here. In the grand scheme of life, how much do the rankings really matter? Aside from the nationals, which all compete with each other, aren't schools really only concerned with where they rank relative to other schools in their immediate area. For example, would Brooklyn Law School really care that U of Arizona is ranked ahead of them? Probably not. They're probably only concerned with their relation to Fordham, Cardozo, St. John's, NYLS, etc. Otherwise, it seems like the rankings only serve to allow law students and schools to get into pissing contests about whose school is better.

It all depends on the school. I'm sure Boalt is quite upset to be out of the top 10. I'm sure their new dean will work his butt off to make sure Boalt gets back into the top 10 next year. In fact, the new dean has commented that he wants to ensure that Boalt gets into the top 5 (hopefully by the time I graduate!) I'm also sure that a lot of Boalt's alumni (and future students like myself) are shocked that the school would allow their rankings to get that low. I know they are just rankings, and the factors used to rank schools should always be seen as suspect, however, everyone still look at rankings.

Just a question, and I'm not trying to stir up a hornet's nest here. In the grand scheme of life, how much do the rankings really matter? Aside from the nationals, which all compete with each other, aren't schools really only concerned with where they rank relative to other schools in their immediate area. For example, would Brooklyn Law School really care that U of Arizona is ranked ahead of them? Probably not. They're probably only concerned with their relation to Fordham, Cardozo, St. John's, NYLS, etc. Otherwise, it seems like the rankings only serve to allow law students and schools to get into pissing contests about whose school is better.

hey, the rankings for the third and fourth tier are listed alphabetically... and thus, really are not rankings. all the information is still there, but the explanation that "law schools within each of these tears should be considered broadly similar in quality and therefore are listed alphabetically."

i do not have a scanner, but i will see if i can use my friend's camera later to take a picture and uplooad it somehow.

however, i stress that the rankings in the first post of this thread are correct.

So - does it matter what a school is ranked when you start or when you finish? If I go to a school that is ranked 75 when I start, but they get up to 50 by the time I graduate (lets say they spent billions of dollars to get new buildings, profs, etc) does it matter that for one/two years I was getting a 75 rank education level or do employers only care that when I graduated it was #50?